DebConf 2021 bid for Kosovo

kosovo_debconf

?DebConf21 should take place in Kosovo for these reasons:

Presentation at DebConf19:

Slides of that presantation can be found here

Venue

Venue on map

Accommodation

The distance is 100m from the venue. Dorm Dorm1 Dorm2 Dorm3

Closest hotels: Hotel Sirius Hotel Afa Swiss diamond hotel Golden hotel

Travel and visa

You could use the airport of countries near by also. Albania airport North Macedonia airport Montenegro airport Serbia airport

Local team

The main people at local team are EnkelenaH, Albiona Hoti, Qendresa Hoti, Diellza Shabani. They have participated in previous ?DebConfs, and they have taken notes from the last DebConf and analysed how it was organized. They have everyday contacts with people who have organized DebConf before, and hold really good relations to DebConf attendees. They have organized events before, like medium and small hackathons that lasted around 3 days, BSPs and a MiniDebConf. They hold Toastmasters events with new people every month and have gained skills in organizing tech events. The tech community in Kosovo is in a high level, there are clubs, innovation centres, groups, NGOs that organize events regularly and are quite motivated to help.

Food

In Kosovo there are many cuisine businesses that can offer food everyday for as many people as necessary. Organizers personally know people who offer this, anyway it is something that can get settled in 2 days. The price would be like 3 Euro per person per meal.

There are great restaurants and you can find most types of food, local and international. Literally every spot in Prishtina has food shops with prices like 2-5 Euro per meal.

Transport through the state

Urban bus in Prishtina costs 0.4Eur, taxi costs 1.5Eur per kilometre. Bus to other cities costs from 2Eur to 5Eur maximum. Bus to neighbour countries Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro costs 10-15Eur round trip.

CHECK LIST

Loging KS, boson al, blej24, smarttronic. For location of the shops check here: shops. Online shopping: gjirafa50.

From the main station to the venue it takes 10m.

Albania airport North Macedonia airport Montenegro airport Serbia airport

Are there any cheap airlines flying to the chosen city (or nearby)?

Flights from every country of Europe to Kosovo or Macedonia or Tirana will cost around 100 - 300 Euros, it depends on the booking period.

How long does the trip from the airport to the venue take?

Language: Do most people speak English? How hard is it for a foreigner to find their way around?

Conference Facilities

How much does it cost to rent these facilities? Free

How far away are the locations from each other? (auditoriums, hacklabs, restaurant, sleeping quarters, front desk, orga spaces) Auditoriums are within 100m from each-other, hacklabs and small rooms for BOFs are at the same building as the main auditorium, we have other hacklabs and other smaller rooms at a building across the road. Sleeping quarters are within 250m from the Venue.

How many people fit in each of them?

How flexible are the spaces?

Is the venue accessible? Note: There are more accessibility issues to bear in mind than just mobility. Is the area safe for people with any kind of disability? (There are sight and hearing-impaired people, too.) Bonus: What people is it not good for? The Venue is fully accessible, it has elevators for those in need. Its structure is in a way that does not badly impact people with sight problems and it is quiet. It has those floors and walls where people can hear their steps

Are plans / blueprints with exact distances available to us (to be kept confidential on request)? We can ask for this when someone from DebConf team visits the place

What kind of audio equipment is already present in the talk rooms?

Will the hacklabs be allowed to stay open 24x7? What time schedule do they offer? We need to get permission for this, should not be a problem.

What kind of security will be there? Police will guard us at the venue, at the dorms! Not that there is a need for this, but we will have it!. Also institutional every building has its own security team now.

Are there any limitations regarding the consumptions of food / alcohol? Where do these limitations apply? There are no limitations anywhere, one can drink and eat as much as they want. But we'd be pleased if people did not get drunk on the streets

How far is it to the nearest convenience stores / all-night restaurants? All night open places are within 1km.

Please provide pictures of the venue and accommodation. Please check the slides of our presentation for the venue pics, dorms are already attached.

FOOD

How much are the meals per person per day? 3 up to 5E

Where will food be served? Is this near the talk rooms / the hacklabs? At the university cafeteria, its not used during the time we will be there. Has the capacity of 1000 people at a time. It is 100 meters from the Venue.

What kind of food will be served?

Mostly Albanian(Kosovan) food, with cooked very delicious vegetables and meet. Can be only vegetables for people who don't consume meet. Open buffet would be the fashion. Will the special meals come from a separate caterer? Yes, the vegan and vegetarian food would be ordered somewhere else. In a two week period, how much variety in food can be provided? Food would be repeated only once, e.g Wednesday we'd have food X as the main course and no other day that course.

Socialising

Network connectivity

Is the area already wired with regular network infrastructure? (much preferably: 1Gbps) It is wired quite well with WiFi also. About the speed we can ask the provider to make it faster if necessary. The provider is a big and well known company, they have great engineers who can understand our requests. This company has a successful tech foundation which sponsors conferences and tech events, they can help with this.

Would it be possible to set up the core network before DebCamp? As it is already set, any necessary improvement would be done before DebCamp

Special rooms

Both for server and video rooms:

Only people with permission, we lock it.

FRONT DESK

Where are we expecting to host the front desk? How close is it to other spaces? Is it lockable? Inside the venue. Yes it is lockable

Orga Room:

YES!

Meeting Room

Is there a small (10 person) room that can be used for private meetings? (e.g. sensitive issues) Yes, we can have this in another building if necessary

Accommodation

50 Euros per person for the whole 2 weeks. So a fixed price for attendee

100m distance

Dorms have the capability of 4000 people, so YES

YES, no problem for that

We'd have our own people dealing with that, volunteers so YES.

List of near by hotels: Hotel Sirius Hotel Afa Swiss diamond hotel Golden hotel

No we do not have special rooms at the dorms

Child Care

We can hire people for those days who can take care of the kids. We could use one room at the venue and one at the dorms. The price would be 150E per child for 2 weeks

Fun and Free time

List some possible Day Trips

== Local Sponsors ==

== Timing ==

When (and why) would be the best time to host DebConf at your location? 15 July to 15 August would be the best time

What is your backup plan if your preferred venue isn't available at that time? If by any chance something with the venue or accommodation goes wrong, we would move to the city of Prizren at the German army camp with capability of 2000 people